Mr. Rumsfeld has described the Europeans as ‘old.’ Indeed, they are — as far as the creation of a state or culture is concerned, [they are] older than the United States. I don’t want to comment any further. But one should deal with each other rationally and with common sense.

We in Britain also carry our own share of responsibility. The chaos which has overtaken Syria, and which has unleashed a flood of refugees to the West, can be traced back 12 years to the Western invasion of Iraq.

George W Bush and Tony Blair’s misguided intervention has led to a torrent of genocide in the region, first inflicted by Al Qaeda in Iraq and now taken forward with the rise of ISIS.

ISIS has taken full advantage of the collapse of government created by the chaos in Iraq to wage their bestial war against the Syrian people. Much of Iraq and Syria has already been turned into war zones. It is becoming increasingly likely that Lebanon, Egypt and other major states in the region will suffer exactly the same fate.

In other words the waves of refugees originating from Syria, innocent victims of a conflict they did nothing to create, may well be just the beginning.

Om detta skriver Michal Simecka från the Center for European Security of the Institute of International Relations i Prag på sajten Open Democracy:

The intensity, hysteria and hypocrisy of the anti-migrant backlash shocked many, including some in the Visegrad countries themselves. Political cowardice and popular mistrust of supposedly liberal elites has allowed poisonous rhetoric directed at migrants to dominate, which risks political isolation and hinders common European action to address the crisis…

The migration crisis has exposed another crisis – of liberal democracy in post-communist societies.

It is regrettable – indeed ”scandalous”, as French foreign minister Laurent Fabius put it – that on one of the few issues on which the Visegrad countries have made their collective voice heard, it contradicts European values and the ethos of the EU. Given the region’s history it is particularly concerning that Central Europeans are currently part of the problem rather than part of the solution.